"Focusing on the poor and ignoring the system of power, priviledge, and profit which makes them poor is a little like blaming the corpse for murder."
-Michael Parenti-
October 21, 2010
October 20, 2010
Quote of the Day - Loss
'To get something you never had, you have to do something you never did.' When something is taken from your grasp, you are not being punished, but merely opening your hands to receive something better. Concentrate on this sentence... 'The will of God will never take you where the Grace of God will not protect you.
- an email from a friend of the family-
October 19, 2010
Yin and Yang
Ancients believed that there was a little good in everything that is bad and a little bad in everything that is good. It is an intriguing concept that's for sure, though I do have my own thoughts about such things.
I had an interesting weekend. And that would be a slight understatement. I got to see some family, who I haven't seen in years. One of my favorite people in the whole wide world came to visit me :) And we had an awesome BBQ for a football game and to celebrate some birthdays, which was sooo much fun, especially because there was crab legs.... so delicious ^^
Then, after an amazing high, the weekend dropped to an all-time low, or perhaps it felt that way because we had been so high on happiness that the low seemed much lower, but either way, it was pretty shocking. My uncle's dog was hit and killed by a car; I loved that dog like no other, lemme tell ya, but the reality of it all really hasn't sunk in yet I think because I really haven't been too sad about it yet... I trained him, and he always greeted me like no other. He was one heck of a huge dog - maverick is about one of the only words that truly describes how big he was. I miss him, but I'll really get the full wave of emotion when I visit my uncle and aunt's place and feel the absence of his vibrant self.
The other low was when my special visitor had to return home. He's very much missed, but fortunately I'll get to see him again soon :) Thank God for airplanes, haha.
I think that perhaps bad things happen in life so that we don't get too comfortable with who we are because often times, we aren't exactly as great as we'd like to think we are. I know this very personally; I find that every time I get hurt or am down, the little things mean so much to me, and I want to pass those little things on to other people around me, whether I know them or not. Maybe that's just me, haha, but hopefully not.
I had an interesting weekend. And that would be a slight understatement. I got to see some family, who I haven't seen in years. One of my favorite people in the whole wide world came to visit me :) And we had an awesome BBQ for a football game and to celebrate some birthdays, which was sooo much fun, especially because there was crab legs.... so delicious ^^
Then, after an amazing high, the weekend dropped to an all-time low, or perhaps it felt that way because we had been so high on happiness that the low seemed much lower, but either way, it was pretty shocking. My uncle's dog was hit and killed by a car; I loved that dog like no other, lemme tell ya, but the reality of it all really hasn't sunk in yet I think because I really haven't been too sad about it yet... I trained him, and he always greeted me like no other. He was one heck of a huge dog - maverick is about one of the only words that truly describes how big he was. I miss him, but I'll really get the full wave of emotion when I visit my uncle and aunt's place and feel the absence of his vibrant self.
The other low was when my special visitor had to return home. He's very much missed, but fortunately I'll get to see him again soon :) Thank God for airplanes, haha.
I think that perhaps bad things happen in life so that we don't get too comfortable with who we are because often times, we aren't exactly as great as we'd like to think we are. I know this very personally; I find that every time I get hurt or am down, the little things mean so much to me, and I want to pass those little things on to other people around me, whether I know them or not. Maybe that's just me, haha, but hopefully not.
October 15, 2010
Quote of the Day - Games
"Not everything is a matter of winning or losing... just being in the game can be greatly rewarding."
-Tia Alsleben-
In the Final Hours
I find it strangely calming at this moment to look toward the future with my thoughts on the past, seeing all I have been through and all that I want to achieve, in one place, in one mindset... peace.
I have been sitting here reflecting on what has been and what I have been through in my short lifetime, and I was looking back wondering just how much I have changed through the years. I remember myself as an energetic child with a longing for fun and adventure all the time. I could never fall asleep fast, and I never wanted to be left out of anything that I saw as suggesting a good time. :) As I started to get older and enter the late "kid" years and started to get into tween city, I remember realizing how horribly I dressed, haha. I actually made sure that I matched my clothes from then on, and I began to discover my love for the understanding of people, though I didn't know that yet.
From my tween years and my first taste of puppy love, I was jolted out of my "perfect" life into a life with a single parent, a lonely life with no friends (being home-schooled for a while really didn't get me many friends), and a much-needed new beginning. I learned the most about myself in the quiet hours when life settled into a slow routine, when I didn't understand quite why life had changed so much. I wasn't unhappy, just wondered, what now?
Public school changed me the most. My friends became my life :) I love those guys more than life itself. I was uplifted, brought down to size, learned to love, learned how to be a teenager (haha yeah pretty sad), and I found life to be so sweet, especially when I learned just how much helping others made me happy. Yeah, I went through some rocky times, but I also had some of the best days of my life there... all in all, my life has been all that I ever could have wanted it to be, and more. God has really blessed me. I just hope that I can take those blessings (and love) and share them with all the people I meet and all the lives I touch.
I just want to say thanx to all of those people who have touched my life in some way or another and have left their fingerprints in the person that I have become today. You guys are incredible, and I could never ask for a better circle of family and friends to accompany me through all of my life's little wanderings. Love you guys!!
I have been sitting here reflecting on what has been and what I have been through in my short lifetime, and I was looking back wondering just how much I have changed through the years. I remember myself as an energetic child with a longing for fun and adventure all the time. I could never fall asleep fast, and I never wanted to be left out of anything that I saw as suggesting a good time. :) As I started to get older and enter the late "kid" years and started to get into tween city, I remember realizing how horribly I dressed, haha. I actually made sure that I matched my clothes from then on, and I began to discover my love for the understanding of people, though I didn't know that yet.
From my tween years and my first taste of puppy love, I was jolted out of my "perfect" life into a life with a single parent, a lonely life with no friends (being home-schooled for a while really didn't get me many friends), and a much-needed new beginning. I learned the most about myself in the quiet hours when life settled into a slow routine, when I didn't understand quite why life had changed so much. I wasn't unhappy, just wondered, what now?
Public school changed me the most. My friends became my life :) I love those guys more than life itself. I was uplifted, brought down to size, learned to love, learned how to be a teenager (haha yeah pretty sad), and I found life to be so sweet, especially when I learned just how much helping others made me happy. Yeah, I went through some rocky times, but I also had some of the best days of my life there... all in all, my life has been all that I ever could have wanted it to be, and more. God has really blessed me. I just hope that I can take those blessings (and love) and share them with all the people I meet and all the lives I touch.
I just want to say thanx to all of those people who have touched my life in some way or another and have left their fingerprints in the person that I have become today. You guys are incredible, and I could never ask for a better circle of family and friends to accompany me through all of my life's little wanderings. Love you guys!!
October 13, 2010
Quote of the Day - Hmm...
"It is better to suffer wrong than do it, and happier to be sometimes cheated than not to trust."
-Unknown-
October 12, 2010
Quote of the Day - Celery
"How do you smell celery?"
"You've never smelled celery?"
"No- wait I smell it, I wasn't breathing."
-Conversation between me and my best friend Ashley-
"You've really never smelled celery?"
"No, haha, it's not like I sniff it!"
*Bouts of laughter*
-The continuation of our conversation
since it was interrupted by a lot of laughter
and her juice almost coming out of
her nose-
October 10, 2010
Quote of the Day - Happiness
"Happiness isn't about getting what you want all the time, it's about loving what you have"
-Unknown-
October 7, 2010
Abusive Consumers
We as Americans are consumers. We buy huge trucks that have the ability to haul really big boats and crap, yet what do we do with them? We park them in mall parking lots...
A fellow classmate of mine said something very close to this in my English class yesterday. I thought it was soooo funny, yet it was so true. Americans do tend to waste a lot, whether it be food, water, heat, clothing, gas, paper, or whatever. The guy was right; Americans ARE consumers. It's almost sad how much we eat, how much we don't eat, and how much we don't see how much both of those things are hurting us as a nation, and how it is hurting other countries as well.
1 out of 3 American adults are considered obese in America, and that was the statistic in July 2008 (Scott). 2 out of 3 Americans over the age of 20 are considered to be overweight (Scott). And the more Americans get, the more we seem to want. Americans are far more likely to become obese than Europeans, and therefore, we also are more likely to have heart diseases, diabetes, and cancer. We are eating ourselves to death and wasting the rest.
We all seem to wonder why people can't just cut back and get into shape, but each of us feed into the problem in various ways, I think. We all have those things that we splurge on, from candy, to gas, to cell phone coverage, to maybe even groceries or clothes. Granted, there are those so-called "hippies" who grow their own food, buy only the clothes they need, kill their own cows and chickens, etc., and these people are definitely working in the right direction, but I don't see too many of us wanting to cut back even somewhat close to what they are doing. I am guilty of this myself; I don't want to give up my potato chips or soda or the occasional piece of candy. All of these are extras to a healthy diet, and I could easily give them up and survive just as well, and I'd be a healthier individual at that! I also don't see myself having the time to grow a garden or have the heart to kill an animal I fed and took care of to eat.
So what can be done? There are many things that can be done to thin Americans out and reduce the waste that occurs in this country. It all really starts at home. Personally, I can only cook and/or take what I will eat; I can recycle cans and bottles; I can make sure that, whenever I am not using some sort of electric device, I can either turn it off or make it so it is using less energy; I can order less at restaurants and take all the leftovers home with me for later; etc. I guess the major thing that I have realized both today and yesterday is that I do consume a lot, and I really want to make an effort to reduce the statistics America holds as a nation.
Sources
Scott, Jennifer R. "How Prevalent is Being Overweight in America?" 30 July 2008. About.com. 7 Oct 2010.
A fellow classmate of mine said something very close to this in my English class yesterday. I thought it was soooo funny, yet it was so true. Americans do tend to waste a lot, whether it be food, water, heat, clothing, gas, paper, or whatever. The guy was right; Americans ARE consumers. It's almost sad how much we eat, how much we don't eat, and how much we don't see how much both of those things are hurting us as a nation, and how it is hurting other countries as well.
1 out of 3 American adults are considered obese in America, and that was the statistic in July 2008 (Scott). 2 out of 3 Americans over the age of 20 are considered to be overweight (Scott). And the more Americans get, the more we seem to want. Americans are far more likely to become obese than Europeans, and therefore, we also are more likely to have heart diseases, diabetes, and cancer. We are eating ourselves to death and wasting the rest.
We all seem to wonder why people can't just cut back and get into shape, but each of us feed into the problem in various ways, I think. We all have those things that we splurge on, from candy, to gas, to cell phone coverage, to maybe even groceries or clothes. Granted, there are those so-called "hippies" who grow their own food, buy only the clothes they need, kill their own cows and chickens, etc., and these people are definitely working in the right direction, but I don't see too many of us wanting to cut back even somewhat close to what they are doing. I am guilty of this myself; I don't want to give up my potato chips or soda or the occasional piece of candy. All of these are extras to a healthy diet, and I could easily give them up and survive just as well, and I'd be a healthier individual at that! I also don't see myself having the time to grow a garden or have the heart to kill an animal I fed and took care of to eat.
So what can be done? There are many things that can be done to thin Americans out and reduce the waste that occurs in this country. It all really starts at home. Personally, I can only cook and/or take what I will eat; I can recycle cans and bottles; I can make sure that, whenever I am not using some sort of electric device, I can either turn it off or make it so it is using less energy; I can order less at restaurants and take all the leftovers home with me for later; etc. I guess the major thing that I have realized both today and yesterday is that I do consume a lot, and I really want to make an effort to reduce the statistics America holds as a nation.
Sources
Scott, Jennifer R. "How Prevalent is Being Overweight in America?" 30 July 2008. About.com. 7 Oct 2010.
October 5, 2010
Push it to the limits
I learned over the past weekend an important lesson. Everyone has a point at which they will not, I repeat NOT, budge past. Lately, I have dealt with a lot of pressure coming from many sides in my life, relationships with family and friends and just college in general. I thought that I was basically a pushover, that I'd slide with anything and just roll with any punches life - or people - threw at me. I guess it took a whole bunch of things falling on me at once for me to reach that point where I said no, I can't carry all of this anymore - it's too much.
I put my foot down to a lot of people, and I realized that I can say no to certain people, and it's fine; it's really not as complicated as I was making it out to be. I had an awesome conversation with my aunt and uncle last night, and I realized just how much certain things in my life mean to me, and that I should defend those things with all of my heart. It saddens me how, over time, our values and ideals can deteriorate, and we can fall away from the things we've always wanted because the going either gets too tough or we feel that it's no longer important, even though we know deep down that we still desire it intensely.
It is important to stay true to who we are, no matter who comes around and tries to make us to otherwise. They may never know just how important something is to us unless we show it, and not showing it would be basically lying to ourselves and them, saying it's okay when really it's not.
I put my foot down to a lot of people, and I realized that I can say no to certain people, and it's fine; it's really not as complicated as I was making it out to be. I had an awesome conversation with my aunt and uncle last night, and I realized just how much certain things in my life mean to me, and that I should defend those things with all of my heart. It saddens me how, over time, our values and ideals can deteriorate, and we can fall away from the things we've always wanted because the going either gets too tough or we feel that it's no longer important, even though we know deep down that we still desire it intensely.
It is important to stay true to who we are, no matter who comes around and tries to make us to otherwise. They may never know just how important something is to us unless we show it, and not showing it would be basically lying to ourselves and them, saying it's okay when really it's not.
October 3, 2010
Birthday 18
I decided that being a minor in college is both good and bad. It is good because you are ahead of most other people there, and people see you as a "smart" person sometimes, which is cool but also annoying since people also try to get homework answers from you and whatnot.
For me, it really bites because of the current situation I am in; having divorced parents who don't really get along and who both want to do stuff for you (but one or the other will get jealous or upset that the other one is doing this stuff for me because they are suspicious of the other's intentions or whatever) really makes life difficult and highly complicated. I love both of my parents, don't get me wrong, but the situation could be a lot better than it is.
In my case, being a minor doesn't make life very easy because I can be controlled and manipulated a lot easier. I look forward to my approaching birthday with high hopes and dreams of freedom to live my own life with no one holding things over my head or using me to get back at the other or using me to find out information or whatever else could be going on.
This whole situation made me think of all the other kids and adults out there who are going through or have gone through their parents getting a divorce. Whether the divorce was civil or not, it seems that most times the kids internalize a lot of the stuff they feel, and they try to pretend that everything is fine, and that they are completely normal. While there is no real definition of "normal", I find it sad that the normal is becoming divorced and divided families; step-families are becoming more and more common, and more and more kids are getting in trouble because their families are being torn apart, and no one is really helping the kids get through it as much as they should.
I'm sure there are a lot more stories of broken families that are far worse than mine. I guess I have a lot to be thankful for, but either way, I still can not wait for the freedom that will come with birthday 18.
For me, it really bites because of the current situation I am in; having divorced parents who don't really get along and who both want to do stuff for you (but one or the other will get jealous or upset that the other one is doing this stuff for me because they are suspicious of the other's intentions or whatever) really makes life difficult and highly complicated. I love both of my parents, don't get me wrong, but the situation could be a lot better than it is.
In my case, being a minor doesn't make life very easy because I can be controlled and manipulated a lot easier. I look forward to my approaching birthday with high hopes and dreams of freedom to live my own life with no one holding things over my head or using me to get back at the other or using me to find out information or whatever else could be going on.
This whole situation made me think of all the other kids and adults out there who are going through or have gone through their parents getting a divorce. Whether the divorce was civil or not, it seems that most times the kids internalize a lot of the stuff they feel, and they try to pretend that everything is fine, and that they are completely normal. While there is no real definition of "normal", I find it sad that the normal is becoming divorced and divided families; step-families are becoming more and more common, and more and more kids are getting in trouble because their families are being torn apart, and no one is really helping the kids get through it as much as they should.
I'm sure there are a lot more stories of broken families that are far worse than mine. I guess I have a lot to be thankful for, but either way, I still can not wait for the freedom that will come with birthday 18.
October 2, 2010
Quote of the Day - James Dean
"Dream as if you'll live forever
Live as if you'll die today"
-James Dean-
October 1, 2010
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